O2 to sponsor Academy music venues

Mobile operator O2 has struck a £22.5m deal with music promoter Live Nation to sponsor 11 music venues across the UK including the Shepherd's Bush Empire.

The deal, which will run for five years, will see Academy-branded music venues in Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle, Oxford, Sheffield and Leeds rebranded as O2 Academy.

A number of the venues, which will be rebranded from January 1, have previously been sponsored by Carling.

The O2 deal with Live Nation - which controls 51% of the venues - and fellow shareholders Metropolis Music and SJM Concerts, marks a significant ramping up of the mobile operator's live music marketing strategy.

O2 already has a significant music venue sponsorship in a £36m deal for the naming rights to the London venue The O2, formerly known as the Millennium Dome, as well as the Wireless festival in Hyde Park.

The company will use the Academy deal as a vehicle to extend its successful priority tickets service for customers attending events at The 02 to venues across the UK.

O2 is today launching a £6m ad campaign highlighting the advantages of the service for gigs.

"Our customers tell us that they really value having priority access to tickets at The O2 so we want to bring this benefit to even more customers," said Ronan Dunne, the chief executive of Telefonica O2 UK.

"The O2 Academy venues are a hugely important part of the UK's music scene."

As part of the deal, O2 will also get first option on exclusive live content from gigs and will "work closely with artists" to make music available for download to handsets. O2 has music services on Napster and MyPlay.

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